There's nothing quite like laughter

[robkelk]

Trump rejects globalism, touts 'doctrine of patriotism' at UN General Assembly

Trump arrived late, forcing a last-minute scheduling switch, then received polite applause but also blank stares as he took his blustery brand of policies to the annual General Assembly.

Speaking in triumphal terms, Trump approached the address as an annual report to the world on his country's progress since his inauguration. He touted economic figures, declared that the U.S. military is "more powerful than it has ever been before," and crowed that in "less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country."

Five sentences into the president's remarks, the audience began to chuckle and some leaders broke into outright laughter, suggesting the one-time reality television star's puffery is as familiar abroad as it is at home.

Yeah.

But that's probably a good thing. Somebody who takes himself as seriously as he does while refusing to listen to facts needs to be laughed at to his face on occasion. Especially if he can't be bothered to show respect to his audience by showing up on time.

The laughter in the first moments of the address evoked a campaign line Trump frequently deployed against his predecessor Barack Obama — who embraced international engagement — suggesting that due to weak American leadership, "the world is laughing at us."

No, the world is not laughing at the United States of America. The world is laughing at Trump. The POTUS is not the USA.

[DHBirr]

No, the world is not laughing at the United States of America. The world is laughing at Trump. The POTUS is not the USA.

We allowed him to be elected.  Those who, like myself, voted against him nonetheless didn't do enough to prevent his election.  Therefore we share a measure of the guilt for every wrong he commits.

My one comfort in this is that Germany, seventy-odd years after the downfall of its "strongman," is again an at-least-somewhat trusted and respected nation, possibly even the "leader of the Free World," if that's not France.  So perhaps the U.S. can eventually come back.  I no longer believe it'll be in my lifetime, and I doubt either of my nieces, thirty years old and twenty, will live to see it, either.  But maybe their children will spend some of their adulthood in a U.S.A. that isn't deservedly an international pariah, North Korea with more resources.  

...  Assuming, that is, the rest of the world doesn't choose to rape our country for those resources.
-----
I'm a very forgiving person ... on Lord Vader's terms.  "Apology accepted, Captain."

[Mamorien]

We allowed him to be elected.  Those who, like myself, voted against him nonetheless didn't do enough to prevent his election.  Therefore we share a measure of the guilt for every wrong he commits.

If we wanted to prevent his election, we needed to start in 2010 when Mr. Justice Kennedy, in re Citizens United v. FEC, determined that "independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption." Or in 2000, taking to the streets to counter the Brooks Brothers Riot. Or in 1976, when the groundwork for Citizens United v. FEC was laid by the ruling, in re Buckley v. Valeo, that the rich had an absolute right to the best politicians their money could buy campaign contributions were protected speech under the First Amendment. Or maybe in 1886, when J.C. Bancroft Davis, railroad executive turned clerk of the Supreme Court, wrote the decision in re Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad that it was unconstitutional to deny corporations any of the rights the Fourteenth Amendment had recently granted to freed slaves and reaffirmed for other natural persons.

"There must have been a point, somewhere at the beginning, where we could have said no. But somehow we missed it."
-- Guildenstern

My one comfort in this is that Germany, seventy-odd years after the downfall of its "strongman," is again an at-least-somewhat trusted and respected nation, possibly even the "leader of the Free World," if that's not France.  So perhaps the U.S. can eventually come back.

Maybe, but consider what it took to make the German people conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory. Now consider whether the U.S. will conduct its own without a similar level of pressure being applied, whether by the Old World riding (in God's good time) to the rescue of the New, or (less likely, but I fantasize about it sometimes) by the forces of galactic justice, led by The Shining One, breaking the blockade on this dead whistle-stop planet. (Explorers moving in whole armies.)

I no longer believe it'll be in my lifetime, and I doubt either of my nieces, thirty years old and twenty, will live to see it, either.

My nephews are 17 and 15 (the older one was a day shy of five months old when the towers fell). I hope they live to see the day when America goes sane, but I'm assuming nothing.

[hazard]

The Old World won't ride to the New World's salvation. Not with armies.

We remember well the colonial era, and want no part of a repeat no matter how good our intentions. Likewise are we seeing the effects of the efforts of the US military in the Middle East and the effects of an invasion in the name of peace. It doesn't work without the support of the population, no matter how grudging.

Any support will be through money and words, and the US has very specific laws about keeping non-US influences away from the US' internal politics, limiting the effectiveness thereof.

[robkelk]

Trump denies UN diplomats laughed at him "'They weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me,' U.S. president tells reporters"

Despite the fact that he said at the time that laughter was not the reaction he expected. (That statement is on tape, along with the laughter.) If you weren't expecting laughter, then you weren't laughing, and thus nobody was laughing with you.

You folks really need a President who's willing to acknowledge facts...

[Dartz]

Can it be both.

At first their laughing at him, but at the same time "That wasn't the response I expected", is - to be fair - an amusing response.

[Labster]

Seth Meyers said that he's been doing that same joke at all of the rallies he's had in the past year, but the UN was the first group that actually got it. "Wow, you guys are a great audience!"